Did you buy your children an iPod or iPhone or other mobile device for Christmas? You just bought them the major porn-consumption device. So what are you going to do to protect them from it? One of the most popular articles I wrote in 2013 concerned The Porn-Free Family. I will be returning to the subject in the new year, but for now, I want to point out an important fact: Most of our attempts to block pornography and to use accountability software are effective only or primarily on desktop devices.

So you’re off for Christmas, but some of you for sure are going to have a hard time winding down. I know I do. Being a driven kind of person, the idea of doing nothing but resting is unsettling for me. But rather than secretly doing email while your family isn’t looking, pacing the house because you can’t sit still or being agitated most of the time, there is an alternative.

Welcome to the day after Christmas! Each year between Christmas and New Years I walk through a simple exercise to help me think through the past year and plan for the coming year. I originally learned this exercise from David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, and have customized it over the years. My wife and I both walk through it, and I use it with those I coach as well. Allocating an hour or two over the next week to walk through this exercise will help you to start the new year well.

Empty a shelf in your house somewhere. Every book you read from now until December 31, 2014 goes on the shelf. (Waiting until January 1st to do something awesome is stupid and fake.) At the end of the year, I guarantee you will have read more than you did in 2013. Best of all, you’re scientifically more likely to accomplish something when you have people working on it with you.

Do you want to read the whole Bible? The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute; there are about 775,000 words in the Bible; therefore it takes less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.

I’m watching the online conference Preach Better Sermons today and wanted to share some of the learnings I picked up. One of the speakers is Jon Acuff. Jon is the author of four books including The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Quitter. Acuff is also the author of the popular blog, Stuff Christians Like.net, which has more than 4.5 million readers worldwide. Jon’s latest book, Start, releases April 22, 2013. In it, Jon challenges and equips readers to get off the path to average and back onto the path to awesome.

Here are some things that jumped out from his segment:

You speak to be remembered or repeated.

The brain looks for ways to connect things they hear.

Know the challenges, thoughts, concerns of your audience.

Most speakers don’t connect our ideas in our talks.

One of the greatest fears communicators have is being honest and share their recent failures.

The greatest way to ruin a speech is ego.

Share your fears. Speakers should go first, which gives the audience the permission and privilege of going second.

If I hide my weakness, they won’t see my strength.

God is not handcuffed by our weaknesses or moved forward by our strengths.

To communicate something, you have to say something more than you think you do.

His emphasis on transitions and helping people stay with you was incredibly helpful.